Hasta La Ideas

Last week saw the opening of “New Work” by San Francisco artist Barry McGee at Modern Art Gallery, marking his first solo show in London in three years. Anyone who is familiar with his work can see that it’s not exactly a new direction for the artist, but McGee always manages to keep it fresh by mixing up mediums and riffing on salon-style presentation while adding or subtracting dimensions from his eye-catching pieces.

Hence, the plaintive, tautological title for the exhibition: at worst, one might surmise that he’s exhausted his creativity in the so-called “new work”… though it is rather more likely that the work simply speaks for itself.

McGee’s signature hand-lettered glyph-like typography echoes the geometry of op-art patterns, while comic-style faces impart a more whimsical feel and sense of scale.

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